Best CPU for video editing? AMD or Intel?

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Mike2021

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Mar 30, 2007
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Hey guys. I need some help. I have been searching around Google for some advice on which CPU is best for video editing, but every forum link it directed me to was out of date. I figured I need some updated advice.

I use Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Audition. It is only used for video editing nothing else. I had a dual P3 1.8 ghz total system but my motherboard died and couldn't find one( actually i found the STL2 but I couldnt find the correct power supply) So I decided to upgrade.

I am between the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ or the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300? I have a budget of $300 including the motherboard. Any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
The AMD Athlon X2 4600+ and the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 are very close But in many Video Applications the Core 2 Duo's have seem to be spanking AMD

So the E6300 is a Recommendation from YO_KID37
(Would you ever consider to overclock ?)
 
I'd rather not. I've never overclocked and really i'm afraid of burning the chip. My budget really wont allow it. Plus i'll be working on the machine about four hours non stop every day.
 
I'd go with the Core 2, they are fairly similar performance wise but the Core 2 has a definite known good upgrade path while the X2 isn't assured an upgrade path at all.
 
I realize this isnt really what you asked, but if you can then buy a 6400 or wait till late this months when price drops come out and possibly the 6420 with 4mb of cache. The E6400 will smoke the 4600+, but the 4600+ and e 6300 will trade blows in alot of different areas. Its generally only around $25 more or so I believe. If your not OC'ing then I really do think its worth it. Note that in my Sig, I have the Xeon equivalent of the 6300!

Best,

3Ball
 
Price Drops, as in In Q3(July or so) There are expected to be 266$ Quad Cores and the price of the ALlendales 4XXX SEries are supposed to hit rock bottom, On anticipation of a Bloody fight to the death With AMD's New CPU's

The one he's referring to are the ones next Month In the first Weeks of April for Core 2 Duo processors, they'll drop down a little bit in price.
 
I do have a price range though. 150 dollars max. thats breaking my budget to be honest but i'll beg-borrow-steal for this workstation to be up and running.
 
Mike, I also work with the same programs, Production Studio CS2, 3dMax 9, etc. Have a small "farm" for rendering. 2 AMD X2 3800's and 2 E6300's all with 4 gigs and running at stock. My main system is a E6600 on an Abit AW9D-Max with 4 gig of OCZ Plat memory, running at 420 x 8. Of course my main system smokes the rest, but the 63's smoke the 38's. Done some benchmarks of my own, rendering a 30 second AE project with moving text, animated bug, 3d animated background, cc effects, etc. The 63's beat the 38's by 25 to 30% easily.
As to future proofing, the C2D's will be much better than AMD as most 775 mobos will support the new quads etc. AMD is changing their mobo requirements again.
You don't need a 680i or even a 650i chipset if you are not going to be using SLI or Crossfire. Go with either a 975 or 965 chipset mobo.
As to overclocking, most C2D mobo's have a automatic overclocking feature build in. The C2D's will overclock by 30% easily with out the need for much additional voltage, such that you get the performance of a 6600 for the price of a lower cost cpu. And you need not worry about life expectancy when overclocking at those levels.
Question for you, what video card are you using? I'm running X1900XTX with a Crossfire as the master. Three 21" monitors to work with. Thinking of going to Matrox or Quatro setup.
 
core2duo are indeed faster in graphic design ( photoshop ) and video editing..
but for "coding" , the ATI and Nvidia hardware based coders are faster :O
but not sure if they support the video formats you want 😵
 
Really I'm still a student in high school and most projects I work on don't require the maximum specs. But soon i'll have to edit hours of footage.(movies) My video card would probably be the one on the motherboard. Not sure if that's a good idea, really not a computer geek. As far as overclocking goes i've never tried it, and really don't know how to do it. and I am afraid I might burn the cpu, but again I don't know the risks involved in overclocking either. Mayby there is nothing to be worried about but I wouldn't know that. Basically I'm looking for the best dual processor sytem at an affordable price.
 
Mike2021, my apologies for asking a question inside your topic... but Im afraid mobo57 wont be anywhere else since he just has 3 posts 🙁

As to future proofing, the C2D's will be much better than AMD as most 775 mobos will support the new quads etc. AMD is changing their mobo requirements again.
You don't need a 680i or even a 650i chipset if you are not going to be using SLI or Crossfire. Go with either a 975 or 965 chipset mobo.
Click to expand...
Just a little thing... 775 is the latest socket from Intel right? So this means Intel has no plans in the "close" future to change it? That's what you mean isnt it?
About chipsets Im a bit confused... since I usually buy AMDs so I just look at the socket type and that's it, but now I guess with Intel I have to take care of the chipsets...
And do chipsets matter thinking about upgrading? (Lets pretend Im buying a quad-core in 6 months, but if I have a 775 socket MoBo with a 650i chipset I wont be able to upgrade or...?).

Thanks, and Im sorry once again Mike2021 please dont hate me 🙁
 
Yes everything changes, after all you don't think these manufacturers want you keeping the equipment you buy and not upgrading every so often. Think Intel would be the giant they are if people didn't think a 5 year old system is a dinosaur? As to Intel's and AMD's future plans, near and far, I am not an expert, but do know a little. Intel has released quad cpu's that do run on the 775 socket and the 9XX chip set and the derivatives there of, such as the 6XX etc. This is great for people like me that can really benefit from the quad cores as I do not have to buy a new motherboard or memory. If I wanted to upgrade my X2's to quad, I'll have to buy a new motherboard and new memory. That's not to say that Intel well be producing cores that will not use the 775 socket and DDR2 memory, as a matter of fact they do plan to, but not in the near future.
Point is, if mike buys now, going Intel does have an upgrade path. AMD is much more limited, especially on his budget. While quad core Intels are rather expensive right now, once AMD releases it's mid to lower quads, you will see releases and price cuts by Intel that will put the lower quads into just about everybody's price range.
mike, as to overclocking, most of the board manufactures have some sort of automatic overclocking utility build in, whether thru the bios or included software in Windo$e. On my farm machines, the mobos for the C2D's are P5WDH Deluxe, and via the bios and the included Asus utility I can overclock to 30% automatically without any voltage changes. IMO as long as you do not raise the voltages by a significant amount, oc'ing does not appreciably reduce the life of the chip by that much as long as you keep it reasonably cool. I have a AMD Barton 2500 clocked at 3200 speed on a media center that gets daily use. Has a Thermaltake Big Typhoon cooler on it to keep it cool and quiet. Been running that way for around five years now.
Regarding video cards, yes the onboard graphics will work, but using a dedicated card is better. If your budget is low, look up the Goodwill Computer stores. i just bought a TI 4200 for Grandma's system there for 14$. That would be much better than most integrated graphics.
 
Mobo, i'm not sure where you are getting your information regarding upgradability, but i'd suggest you look to other sources. I'm sorry to say, but you simply are wrong. All AMD ddr2 based systems will accept next gen cpu's, including quad core. Just as %99 of s939 based systems were compatible with dual core versions. I won't comment on Intel's upgrade path as i'm sure others can and will.
 
pie, I did not say you cannot upgrade an AMD dually to a quad. I stated that I would have to. My X2's are first gener's using ddr memory, etc. As long as the mobo is a socket F or AM2, then yes there is an upgrade path. How clear and how far that will go is anybodies guess. Based on that and the current state of things, AMD's Quad FX platform, and the limitations the current set of motherboards that exist that will support the Barcelona, I think my statement is correct. For example regarding the Barcelona, there is already discussion in the wild as to the lack of support as to some of the features of the core by current mobos that cannot be addressed by a bios update.
Point is, purchasing an entry level Intel based system has two advantages right now, 1. Real world tested and mature chip set platforms. 2. Known and fully supported upgrades from dual to quad cores on a majority motherboards.
And finally, the big question is, can AMD compete on a cost/performance basis on the desktop quads? Seeing as Intel has had a headstart at recovering their development costs, I would not be surprised to see Intel get aggressive with it's pricing when AMD enters the ring. There already are rumors of the Q6600 at a 400$ or less point by year end.
 
It's o.k minty i completely understand. Besides im actually learning off of it too. :) A question for mobo, if i buy the ds3 motherboard, will that have the auto oc as well? and will i have to buy a better cooling system?
 
If you are thinking of the Gigabyte yes to "intelligent oc" and you should for the cooling but.....
In reverse order, the C2D's run fairly cool. It's not uncommon to see 40% over clocks using the stock cooling solution. The stock HSF that comes in the retail package is decent. I rarely buy retail, prefer OEM and then get a decent after market cooling solution. But that is my choice.

The retail cooler does a decent job and you should be able to get by with it just fine. Just get some AS5 or similar, then save up your pennies for a decent cooler like a 9700 or something like that later.
As to the mobo, it does have settings for newbie over clocking and is a Very good board. One problem though, if you are working with video and need to transfer with IEE 1394 you will have to get a add-on card.

Last, save some money and don't get waste it on Ultra Low Latency Gold Plated, Fully Illuminated Hyper Cooled Plasma Etched 6400 speed memory. 5400 speed will do just fine as long as you get decent latency and good quality. My AMD's all have Patriot. Intels are all OCZ. All the Intels have 6400 but it is a waste for the slower machines, never reach that speed.
Just remember to get as much memory you can afford up to 4 gigs. Amazing how quickly AE eats up memory if you forget to purge, and even if you do, it's nothing to need over 2 gigs and amazing how fast your system goes from blazing fast to a turtle with bad feet.
 
Hey guys, I'm new to this forum but I think this isn't really off-topic. I'm also looking for a system that's ideal for video editing. I'll be capturing analog video, editing, and converting. The thing is, I'm looking to buy a system off-the-shelf, although I was an avid DIY-er in a past life. The question is am I better off with a gaming-oriented pc or a workstation class?

If I look at Dell, for example, there's the XPS line I can get with E6600, 2GB RAM, 2x250MB HD RAID 0, and 256MB video card. Then there's the Precision workstation series with Xeon 5140, although graphics cards are much more expensive for same MB. I can basically get what I want in either system for a little over $2k. The workstation has much more expandability, e.g. memory, SAS HD, dual cpu.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
maybe you should check out the nividia quadro series of video cards? i belive they are the fx's.. i THINK those are geared more towards video editiing??? but when i think about it.. even onboard video graphics should be suitable for moderate video editing?? i dunoo just some of my rambling...
 
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